Cat's Eye

by Margaret Atwood

Elaine, the narrator, is a painter returning to Toronto in middle age for a retrospective of her work. The city brings back memories of a profoundly unhappy period of her childhood and she tells her story in a series of canvases that portray, with an artist's attention to detail, various pivotal points in her life. Central to the narrative is the destructive relationship that develops with another girl, Cordelia, and its lasting effect on Elaine.
This is a wonderful, absorbing book, that captures the power games and the subtle cruelties that girls can inflict on each other. It is also a great read, written in Atwood's characteristic effortless prose that gets deep into the psyche of the not altogether sympathetic Elaine.